Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (The Moderators) (07/12/89)
Info-Mac Digest Tue, 11 Jul 89 Volume 7 : Issue 118
Today's Topics:
Abaton Fax Modem
Apple sells Adobe stock (opinion)
bird-anatomy-part1.hqx
ColorFinder info
Databasing Info-Mac
Diamond 3.2 Demo
Distribution of color SimCity
File Exchange Bug
Fortran compilers for the Mac
Gatekeeper 1.1.1
Info-Mac Digest V7 #116
Inter*Poll (again!)
Keystroke Recorder for the MAC
Might and Magic
Public domain software request
Ram Upgrades
Rapport(tm) drive controller
serial port stack and parser needed
Text files as a database?
Two system folders
Your Info-Mac Moderators are Bill Lipa, Lance Nakata, and Jon Pugh.
The Info-Mac archives are available (by using FTP, account anonymous,
any password) in the info-mac directory on sumex-aim.stanford.edu
[36.44.0.6]. Help files are in /info-mac/help. Indicies are in
/info-mac/help/recent-files.txt and /info-mac/help/all-files.txt.
Please send articles and binaries to info-mac@sumex-aim.stanford.edu.
Send administrative mail to info-mac-request@sumex-aim.stanford.edu.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 07 Jul 89 07:45:04 MDT
From: Bob Bolt <BBOLT%UALTAVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Abaton Fax Modem
I am thinking of buying an Abaton Interfax fax modem and Abaton sheet
feed scanner. This combination is being offered by a local reseller
for under $1000 Cdn (about $800 US) packaged with Digital Darkroom. I
think Abaton is trying to dump its sheet feed scanners, but the price
seems to good to pass up. Has anyone had any experience with this
scanner or modem? I am most interested in the modem's ability to receive
a fax in the background. Can this be done on a 1 meg Mac?
Bob Bolt
BBOLT@UALTAVM
------------------------------
Date: Fri 7 Jul 89 16:49:53-PDT
From: Brodie Lockard <I.ISIMO@macbeth.stanford.edu>
Subject: Apple sells Adobe stock (opinion)
Apple just announced that they're selling their Adobe stock and will be
developing their own clone to PostScript. As a developer, and as a user, I
feel the need to comment.
After the Mac was introduced to the public, it took Apple over three years to
produce a native development environment for it (MPW). In the meantime (and
while Macs were available to developers but not the general public), developers
limped along with a Lisa, or Aztec C, RMaker, and early versions of ResEdit,
before decent products like TML Pascal, LSP, and LSC came along to lift us out
of the Stone Age. There still isn't a good (read WYSIWYG) version of ResEdit,
despite the obvious need for over five years now. Recent "support" for clut
and pltt resources is as awful as menu editing has always been. Months ago,
NeXT's Interface Builder was twenty times what ResEdit should have been years
ago.
After an admirably clear set of documentation in Inside Mac I-III, we were
given information in IM V that is poorly organized, poorly explained,
incomplete and sometimes just plain wrong. Apple has never been quick or
generous with example code, but examples for color QuickDraw appeared on
AppleLink just last summer, 18 months after the Mac II was introduced.
Furthermore, though AppleLink's Tech Support boasts a 48-hour turnaround time,
I know several people who wait many days for an answer, and sometimes get none
at all (myself included).
More recently, we've had the "Year of the CPU." That's a great concept for
users, but for developers it's a nightmare. There are now six models of
Macintosh in production, as well as three out of production, which still do
exist and are used by real people who sometimes buy software. There's no way
an independent developer, or even a small company, can test new software on
every CPU, let alone every configuration. Oh, and by the way, what's your
screen size? Is MultiFinder on? Are you in 1-, 2-, 4-, or 8-bit mode (or 16,
24 or 32)? Are there multiple monitors? How much RAM is there? Is your RAM
cache on? What keyboard are you using? What System? Finder? INITs?
Printer? Network?
All the options are great for users (in general), but developing reliable Mac
software is becoming harder every month. Apple should be making things easier
for developers, not harder. We're told System 7 will bring "toolboxes," to
simplify our job. Presumably, it will also bring dozens of new ROM calls, and
more things to test. But it looks like a step in the right direction.
Now we're told that Apple is going to compete directly against Adobe and
PostScript, which helped give the Mac a life-saving boost when the LaserWriter
came out. How nice of them. Is Apple trying to get us to despise them?
PostScript is as much of a standard as anything that exists in this crazy
industry. But Apple's going to make their own version, a clone. What are the
chances that it will be 100% compatible with real PostScript? Did you say
zero? More incompatibilities. More things to test. More ways to break.
Developers suffer. More testing is needed. Revisions are needed. Costs go
up. Users suffer. Apple suffers (or maybe they'll just raise their prices
again).
Apple had better start thinking more about their developers. Right now I'd
rather develop on a NeXT. Maybe next year will be the Year of the Printer.
Brodie Lockard
I.ISIMO@HAMLET.STANFORD.EDU
[These opinions have nothing whatever to do with Stanford University.]
-------
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 89 13:42:03 -0500
From: Don Gilbert <gilbertd@silver.bacs.indiana.edu>
Subject: bird-anatomy-part1.hqx
bird-anatomy.hqx, part 1 of 3
This is the award-winning Bird Anatomy Hypercard stack by
Patrick Lynch, version 1.2. It is marvelous for anyone
interested in birds and for hypercard programmers looking
for a well put together stack.
posted by Don Gilbert, BioComputing Office, Indiana U.
GilbertD@Gold.Bacs.Indiana.Edu
[Archived as /info-mac/hypercard/bird-anatomy-part1.hqx; 162K
/info-mac/hypercard/bird-anatomy-part2.hqx; 162K
/info-mac/hypercard/bird-anatomy-part3.hqx; 162K
/info-mac/hypercard/bird-anatomy-part4.hqx; 162K
/info-mac/hypercard/bird-anatomy-part5.hqx; 162K
/info-mac/hypercard/bird-anatomy-part6.hqx; 70K]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 07 Jul 89 15:05:56 EDT
From: Dick Dramstad <rad@mbunix.mitre.org>
Subject: ColorFinder info
One of the nice things about ColorFinder is its interaction
with the Facade INIT. If you've used Facade to customize the way your
hard disks, appleshare volumes, tops volumes, and floppies show up on
your desktop, and you use icons that colorfinder knows about, you get
multicolor icons on your desktop for free. With the 6 remote volumes
I have mounted, my desktop turns into a nice parade of little cartoon
icons. (You can't imagine how much more productive these two INITs
have made my life. :-)
Dick Dramstad
rad@mbunix.mitre.org
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 89 14:10 CST
From: <HRAMAGLI%UTMEM1.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Databasing Info-Mac
Has anyone already invented the wheel out there??
We are looking for a database system or reference system that is already set
up to index Info-Mac Digest. We would like to use this as a reference system
for our Macintosh support specialists. Does anyone have such a system already
functioning? We really don't want to reinvent the wheel.
Thanks for your help.
Howard
************************************************************************
* *
* Dr. Howard J. Ramagli *
* BITNET Info Representative *
* Director, Technology Support Services *
* Biomedical Information Transfer (BIT) Center *
* University of Tennessee, Memphis, 877 Madison, Memphis, TN 38163 *
* (901) 528-5024 *
* HRAMAGLI@UTMEM1.BITNET U0282 on AppleLink *
* *
************************************************************************
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 89 23:59:12 +0200
From: Roland Mansson <roland@dna.lth.se>
Subject: Diamond 3.2 Demo
I've tried a new archiever. It's called Diamond (version 2.1,
demo). It packs considerably better than StuffIt (se below for
figures). Diamond is somewhat slower than StuffIt to pack,
but it unpacks extremely fast.
I've done some 20 tests with Diamond, and the unpacked packed
archive has always been identical to the source (incl positions
and colors of icons).
It has three levels (fast, medium and compact). While the size
of the archive is about the same in my tests, the time spent
differs quite a lot. "Fast" is probably the best alternative.
It works with MultiFinder (partition size at least 410kB), but
not in the background. It gives some time (very little, but
better than nothing) to background applications.
It can pack a file, a folder, or a volume. If the destination
doesn't have enough free space, it just asks for another disk(s).
If you have an extra hard disk, it's convenient to backup one
disk to a single file on the other. This is generally not
possible in backup programs.
Times are measured on a Mac II, 5MB, System 6.0.3, MultiFinder
and a dozen inits. StuffIt configured to try LZW and Huffman
and to not allow background tasks.
Method Size Saved Time to Time to
pack unpack
Unpacked Application 590278
StuffIt 402079 31.88% 0.45 0.56
Diamond, fast 308579 47.72% 1.28 0.19
Diamond, medium 304446 48.42% 2.07 0.18
Diamond, compact 303931 48.51% 2.43 0.17
Unpacked Stack 349562
StuffIt 191841 45.12% 0.27 0.28
Diamond, fast 162627 53.48% 1.04 0.10
Diamond, medium 156681 55.18% 1.27 0.10
Diamond, compact 154820 55.71% 1.44 0.10
Unpacked Docs Folder 330816
StuffIt 182545 44.82% 0.45 0.36
Diamond, fast 142490 56.93% 1.09 0.12
Diamond, medium 142430 56.95% 1.35 0.12
Diamond, compact 142426 56.95% 1.48 0.12
(Application: MacWrite II, Stack: Apple's Tech Q&A 3.1,
Docs folder: ten documents (MacWrite, Word, MacPaint,
MacDraw etc)).
Diamond is developed by SOFT Technologies.
Their address is
SOFT Technologies
Denis SERSA
9, rue des lilas
67640 FEGERSHEIM, France
Tl. (33) 88.64.31.74
Fax. (33) 88.67.13.73
Applelink: SOFT.TECH
Standard disclaimers apply.
+++
The text above is about ver 2.1. I've now got ver 3.2, and it
is included below. Major new feature: ability to include
unpacking code. It is still only 32kB (of which 9kB are
PICTs!).
FULL VERSION THAT CLOCKS OUT 1 MONTH AFTER FIRST USE
ALL FEATURES AVAILABLE
+++
[Archived as /info-mac/demo/diamond-32.hqx; 44K]
------------------------------
Date: Fri 7 Jul 89 16:57:44-PDT
From: Brodie Lockard <I.ISIMO@macbeth.stanford.edu>
Subject: Distribution of color SimCity
In Maxis' defense, it's not really their decision to sell color SimCity only
via an upgrade. Their distributor, Broderbund, can't (or doesn't want to) sell
two versions of the game, in two separate boxes. Shelf space in stores is
a rare commodity. They could put both disks in every box, but that raises
the price for everyone by selling both b&w and color users an extra disk they
don't need.
Brodie Lockard
I.ISIMO@HAMLET.STANFORD.EDU
-------
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 07 Jul 89 16:07:39 EET
From: "J.Santara" <LK-JOUNI@mammutti.utu.fi>
Subject: File Exchange Bug
Folks,
A guy from one of our faculties just bought a brand-new
SE30 macintosh and game to show it to me (to make me envy
with my poor Mac+ I guess...). He is interested in Mathematics
and because of this wanting to use TeX. So, I gave him a
version of OzTeX. They already had a version for PCs called
PCTeX. This raised an interesting question to transfer files
>From Mac to PC and back. We tried the File Exchange utility
coming with the machine. The consequences were interesting:
it works fine when you remember to name the files beforehand
for the limits of DOS (8 character for name and three for type
or something like that) but if you forget to do this it is
creating *directory* from the viewpoint of DOS.
Can somebody there in netland verify this result?
Is there really this kind of "feature" in Apple's application
or are we doing something terribly wrong? Perhaps, this guy
got an old version of program...
Also, it would be fascinating to hear if there is any cheap
DA for this special purpose: to move files between these worlds.
J.Santara
Computing Centre
Turku university
Finland
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 89 16:41 EDT
From: "David G. Durand" <DURAND%brandeis.bitnet@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Fortran compilers for the Mac
For a presentation I will be giving on Mac programming languages, I need
information about Frotran compilers for the Mac. I don't use Fortran at all
myself, but many of those I will be talking to will want to use it. Any
information about compilers that you have used and what you liked/disliked
about them would be valuable.
If people send mail directly to me, I will post a summary of whatever I
learn. Thanks for the help.
David G. Durand O_o
Manager of Technical Services =( )= Ack!
Brandeis University U
Waltham Mass.
Network:
DURAND@BRANDEIS.BITNET
DURAND%BRANDEIS.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 1989 20:06:53 PDT
From: The Moderators <Info-Mac-Request@sumex-aim.stanford.edu>
Subject: Gatekeeper 1.1.1
I have put the latest version of GateKeeper in the virus directory. This
version (1.1.1) replaces the old 1.1.
What are the differences? Quite a few. There are some interface improvements
which allow more flexible matching of names. Internal errors can be turned
off if you so desire. A bug which could result in a scrambling of the
privilege list has been fixed. And GateKeeper comes preconfigured for most
applications which need privileges so you don't have to mess around as much.
The StuffIt archive contains a more detailed listing of the changes. Suffice
it to say, though, that if you routinely use GateKeeper you ought to upgrade.
Bill
PS. I also just installed a new version of the searchreplace xcmd and
of mcvert. Sorry, I lost the blurbs.
[Archived as /info-mac/virus/gatekeeper-111.hqx; 109K
/info-mac/unix/mcvert.shar; 55K
/info-mac/hypercard/xcmd-searchreplace-151.hqx; 55K]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 89 10:24:51+0900
From: kddlab!atr-hr.atr.junet!mzeren@uunet.uu.net (Mark Zeren)
Subject: Info-Mac Digest V7 #116
I am looking for information about statistical analysis packages,
especially those oriented to the social sciences, that are availible
for the Mac.
A friend who is currently working with SPSS on the IBM PC is hoping
to move into the Macintosh world some time before the beginning of 1990.
Is there a version of SPSS for the Mac? How about SAS? What kind
of hardware (and therefore money) will be required? If this software
exisits, how much does it cost? What will be the easiest way to move
her large data bases from the PC to the Mac.
If you can offer any info, suggestions, etc. they would be much appreciated
Please use E-mail.
Mark Zeren - mzeren%atr-hr.atr.junet@UUNET.UU.NET - ATR Kyoto
_mjz_
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 89 14:38:32 EDT
From: Tom Coradeschi <tcora@pica.army.mil>
Subject: Inter*Poll (again!)
OK, so I got good help w/ my question about SE/30's not showing up properly
on Inter*Poll. Now another question. I'm running Inter*Poll _from_ an SE/30.
When I launch the app, I get a dialog box telling me:
"No workstation name
registered... Be sure
to install Responder INIT
in System Folder."
I click OK, and life goes on. The problem is that I have Responder
installed in the system folder. And when I do a device lookup, I most
certainly do exist (and show up as an SE/30)! Any suggestions?
tom c
Electromagnetic Armament Technology Branch, US Army Armament Research,
Development and Engineering Center, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ 07806-5000
ARPA: tcora@pica.army.mil -or- tcora@ardec.arpa [201] 724-4344
UUCP: ...!{uunet,rutgers}!pica.army.mil!tcora BITNET: Tcora@DACTH01.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 89 18:11:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Chris Neuwirth <cmn+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Keystroke Recorder for the MAC
A colleague of mine doing writing research wants to know "Does any know
of a keystroke recorder which works on a MAC SE or Mac II?" Program
needs to produce a time stamped data file recording all keystroke and
mouse events. Would be nice if it had a playback feature as well.
Thanks in advance,
Chris Neuwirth
English Department
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
cmn+@andrew.cmu.edu
------------------------------
Date: Sun 09 Jul 1989 00:28 CDT
From: GREENY <MISS026%ECNCDC.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Might and Magic
Hi all!
I was wondering if anyone out there has played Might and Magic by New
World Computing, and if so, if they were as irritated by the "key disk"
copy protection as I am. Also, if they were (even if they weren't), I was
wondering if anyone out there had come up with a patch to remove this
copy protection.
I bought my hard drive for speed, ease of program use, and convenience of
data storage/retrieval. Usually I copy the programs which I purchase to
my hard drive, then lock the original master disks off-site in a data safe
at work (along with my weekly backups). However, due to the copy protection
on this program, I am forced to take an unnecessary risk.
Can anyone out there help me, or direct me to someplace (someone) that can?
Thanks in advance.
Bye for now but not for long
Greeny
BITNET: MISS026@ECNCDC
Internet: MISS026%ECNCDC.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
GEnie: Greeny
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 1989 09:54 EDT
From: Stan Horwitz <V4039@vm.temple.edu>
Subject: Public domain software request
Hello each and every mac lover. Anyway, I have a Mac SE sitting on my
desk. It has all these folders on it! Some of of these folders have even
more folders stuck in them! I like to view these folders and folders
within folders as large icons. However, these icons are not alphabetized
and I would like them to be so. Ideally, I would like to be able to click on
the Special's clean up selection and have the present panel alphabetized
as well as neatened up. Is there any pd software around which does this?
Any pd software which does this will be welcome. If anyone has such a
program, please be a pal and send it to me or tell me how it can be obtained.
Thanks oh so much,
Stan Horwitz
Acknowledge-To: Stan Horwitz <V4039@TEMPLEVM>
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 07 Jul 89 20:14:11 EST
From: Alan Stein <STEIN%UCONNVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Ram Upgrades
The upcoming System 7.0 is making me think about upgrading some Mac +'s
I'm responsible for from 1 to 2 Megs. A call to a "friendly" Computerland
resulted in a quote of $800 per upgrade, compared to mail order prices
of @$150 for a 1 meg SIMM.
Clearly, the $650 markup is a bit high, so I'm curious about how others
have increased their internal memory. Is it a routine do it yourself
project?
Alan H. Stein | stein@uconnvm.bitnet
Department of Mathematics | stein%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu
University of Connecticut | ...psuvax1!UCONNVM.BITNET!STEIN
32 Hillside Avenue |
Waterbury, CT 06710 | Compu$erve 71545,1500
(203) 757-1231 | GEnie ah.stein
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 89 10:19:47 EDT
From: paisley@mte.ncsu.edu (Mike)
Subject: Rapport(tm) drive controller
Hello Fellow Netters:
I recently received, as I am sure many of you did, a flyer in the mail from
Image Catalog advertising their Rapport Drive Controller. This controller
plugs into your external drive port and allows your INTERNAL drive to
read/write 720K MS-DOS diskettes (with some software as well, I assume).
Plugging an Apple external drive into the controller will permit you to work
with MS-DOS disks as well as format Mac disks for 1.2M. All this for $295.
For an additional $400, they will add their own external drive that will
format disks at 2.4M (on HD diskettes).
Does anyone have any experience with these folks? Does their product work as
advertised? Does it do anything wierd? I'm mostly interested in the MS-DOS
transfer end of things. Thanks.
Michael J. Paisley PAISLEY@MTE.NCSU.EDU
Materials Science & Engineering PAISLEY%MTE@NCSUVX.NCSU.EDU
229 Riddick Laboratories PAISLEY@NCSUMTE.BITNET
Campus Box 7907 Office: (919) 737-7083
North Carolina State University Messages: (919) 737-2377
Raleigh, NC 27695-7907 FAX: (919) 737-3419
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 89 11:32:39 +1000
From: Hans Eriksson <munnari!ditmela.oz.au!Hans.Eriksson@uunet.uu.net>
Subject: serial port stack and parser needed
On a Sun-unix machine, I have a line-oriented command interpreter
(shell). I want to write a nice user interface to that using
HyperCard. To do this I have to:
Access the shell. This can be done either via the serial port and log
in a a normal terminal (hmm, the 'normal terminals' are
getting pretty rare nowadays with X etc.) or via a TCP/IP.
Is there a package that would give me such access?
I have heard of a VT100-stack. What does that give you?
Parsing the output. I guess, yacc (a Unix program
yet-another-compiler-compiler) is not available in HC.
Is there a package that could assist me in the parsing of the
output from the shell?
/hans
Hans Eriksson (hans@ditmela.oz.au)
CSIRO/DIT, 55 Barry Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia (we are GMT+10)
Tel: +61 3 347-8644 Fax: +61 3 347-8987 Home: +61 3 534-5188
On a years leave from Swedish Institute of Computer Science (hans@sics.se)
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Jul 89 16:50 MDT
From: Reitman%UNCAMULT.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: Text files as a database?
Does anyone know of a program or set or procedures that allow text files
to be manipulated like fielded data files. In other words, I have a set
of 9500 text files which are tab delimited. I would like to treat each
individual text file as a data record. Then I would like to perform
find and search functions among all of these text files. The ultimate
goal would be to pull them into HyperCard, which is easy using the
standard open, read and close file commands. Reply herer or
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 89 11:02:26 PDT
From: Jim Budler <jim@eda.com>
Subject: Two system folders
In comp.sys.mac.digest you write:
>I've heard that there is a PD program called (?) `system shifter'
>that might help; can someone tell me how to get hold of this? Or,
>has anyone solved this problem any other way?
>Please mail me and I'll post a summary.
> Stuart MacFarlane JANET: stuartm@uk.ac.hw.hci
I got System Switcher off of Compuserve.
It works just fine. I can mail you a copy if you wish.
jim
--
Jim Budler address = uucp: ...!{decwrl,uunet}!eda!jim
domain: jim@eda.com
voice = +1 408 986-9585
fax = +1 408 748-1032
------------------------------
End of Info-Mac Digest
******************************